Rise of Paralegals

Rise of Paralegal= s

Law firms have gr= own number of paralegals

Dayton Business Journal - April 20, 2007

By Yvonne Teems, DBJ= Staff Reporter

[Photo by Colleen Ke= lley]: Betty White is a paralegal with the= Dayton law firm of Sebaly, Shillito and Dyer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that paralegal employment will increase 27 percent in the next seven years.

Betty White has work= ed as a paralegal for Sebaly Shillito & Dyer's Dayton office for 18 years and has held= the managing paralegal position for the past 10.

But White has spent = the past two decades doing more than just sorting through legal documents. She trave= ls with lawyers to meet with clients, helps clients prepare documents and helps decide what information is necessary for a case, among a slew of other task= s.

More law firms today= are using experienced paralegals such as White for more challenging tasks as law firms try to reduce costs -- an hour of a paralegal's time costs much less = than that of a lawyer's. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported employment of paralegals nationwide is expected to grow 27 percent or more from 2006 to 2= 014. That nationwide trend already is happening in Dayton, as local law firms add more paralegals to their payrolls.

Sebaly Shillito &= ; Dyer grew its paralegal staff 42 percent from 9.5 full-time equivalent paralegal= s in 2002 to 13.5 in 2007, said Penny Wolff, office administrator.

Wolff added that the= firm's number of lawyers grew as well -- from 21 five years ago to 29 today -- but said the firm's paralegal-to-lawyer ratio is unusually high. Last year, Sinclair Community College's paralegal prog= ram named Sebaly Shillito & Dyer firm of the year for having the best use of its paralegals.

"I think there'= s a market for professional paralegals with experience," Wolff said.

Dayton's largest law= firm with 53 lawyers, Thompson Hine, has five paralegals and five intellectual property assistants, which can be counted as paralegals, said Michael Hammarlund, who works as legal support supervisor out of the firm's Clevela= nd office. Firm-wide, Thompson Hine has grown its number of paralegals 30 perc= ent since 2000.

Hammarlund agreed th= at part of the reason for the greater demand for paralegals is that their time is l= ess expensive than that of lawyers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the median annual salary of a lawyer as of May 2004 was $94,930, while the median annual earnings of a paralegal were $39,130.

Charlie Faruki, mana= ging partner at Dayton law firm Faruki, Ireland and Cox, said firms that have individual, as opposed to corporate, clients = are more likely to rely heavily on paralegals to lower costs for the consumer. However, his firm, which specializes in business litigation, has always used paralegals extensively, he said. The firm employs six paralegals and has 37 lawyers.

Paralegal learnin= g

Paralegal education = and certification is on the rise as well.

Faruki said that the= re are more paralegal courses today than there used to be. = Sinclair Community = College has offered a paralegal program since 1978.

In the past several = years, the program has grown slightly in the number of students it graduates each year, said Bonnie Shane, chair of the program. In 2002, the two-year program graduated 31; in 2004, it graduated 28; and in 2006, it graduated 45.

Some law firms are s= tarting to require paralegals have a four-year, instead of a two-year, degree. That hasn't happened in Dayton yet, but several years from now, it may become a requirement, Shane said. <= /span>

And more certificati= on programs are being offered to paralegals now than ever before. Several nati= onal organizations offer voluntary certification programs that give paralegals t= he opportunity to take an exam and become certified. This summer, the Ohio Sta= te Bar Association for the first time will offer a paralegal certification exa= m. The exam requires paralegals have various amounts of experience and educati= on: For example, a paralegal with a high school diploma must have worked seven years as a full-time paralegal to qualify for the exam, while an individual with a bachelor's degree and 20 hours in a paralegal program must have work= ed as a paralegal one year to qualify.

While the certificat= ion program isn't mandatory, its importance may grow in the coming years.

"I wouldn't be surprised at some point it becomes a mandatory certification program," Thompson Hine's Hammarlund said.

Megan Jones, an esta= te planning paralegal at Sebaly Shillito & Dyer, said she doesn't qualify = for the exam yet, but when she does, she'll take it. She started working for the law firm one and a half years ago after graduating from Sinclair's program.=

She said it wasn't h= ard to find a job, especially because Sinclair requires students to have two internships before graduating. Sebaly Shillito & Dyer offered her a job after she interned with the firm.

E-mail yrteems@bizjournals.com. Call 222-6900, ext. 127.

Dayton Business Journal - April 23, 2007

http://dayton.bizjou= rnals.com/dayton/stories/2007/04/23/focus1.html